Mindfulness training improved depression scores in a small student trial
Healthy university students reported greater improvement after mindfulness training, alongside brain-scan changes. The study does not establish treatment effectiveness for diagnosed depression.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
Students assigned to mindfulness-based stress reduction showed greater improvement in depression questionnaire scores than controls. Brain imaging also showed changes in regional activity and connections, some of which were correlated with score improvement. These findings support a possible relationship between the training and symptom changes, but they do not demonstrate how those brain changes caused the improvement.
The abstract gives no effect size, confidence interval or control-group activity details. Participants were described as healthy students, limiting what this trial can say about people receiving care for diagnosed depression.
What researchers found
Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 depression scores
Mindfulness training versus control over 8 weeks; the size and statistical uncertainty of the difference were not reported.
What the scans showed
After training, measures of activity were lower in the right middle cingulate cortex. Connectivity between that region and the hippocampus and precuneus was also reduced relative to the control group.
Association does not explain mechanism
Changes in some brain connections were correlated with improvement in depression scores. A correlation between these changes does not establish that altered connectivity was responsible for the symptom improvement or that the scan measures are clinical outcomes.
The original publication
Neural mechanisms underlying the depression-reducing effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction in university students: A Rs-fMRI study.
Zhan X, Li H, Chen K et al.
Biol Psychol · 2026
- PubMed ID
- 41344637
- Record checked
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